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SYCAMORE TWP. – The owner of the derelict Drake Motel has asked Sycamore Township for a hearing on the future of the Reading Road property closed after complaints of drug activity and prostitution.

While date of a hearing before the Sycamore Township Board of Trustees has yet to be set, it likely will be April 6, Board President Tom Weidman said.

The request for the hearing by LVREIS Inc. of Las Vegas, the owner of the 70-room motel that sits on nearly two acres of land at 8109 Reading Road, comes after LVREIS skipped a hearing before township trustees in December.

Hotel declared ‘unsafe and structurally defective’

Based on information provided by Harry Holbert, Sycamore Township building inspector, trustees at the December hearing declared the Drake Motel “insecure, unsafe and structurally defective. The unsafe conditions that exist on the property create a fire and safety hazard.”

The Drake Motel has been declared uninhabitable.(Photo: Jeanne Houck/The Community Press)

Sycamore Township notified LVREIS Inc. that unless it asked for a hearing, it had 30 days to repair the property or raze it – or the township would demolish it.

The Hamilton County auditor’s website shows LVREIS bought the Drake Motel for $375,000 in November 2014, after the property currently valued at just over $1 million went into foreclosure.

“Since that time, the current owner has let the property deteriorate to a stage where it is no longer compliant with the basic building code and is in need of major repairs just to be considered a safe structure, let alone be habitable,” Weidman said.

Representatives of LVREIS Inc. could not be reached for comment.

Weidman said the Drake Motel was declared a nuisance by Sycamore Township and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in 2013.

‘There was drug activity going on for years’

“There was drug activity going on for years and the sheriff’s office did an undercover investigation which revealed drug activity,” Weidman said.

“The sheriff’s office filed an injunction to shut the motel down and a (Hamilton County) judge issued a restraining order on the property, closing it down.”

That followed testimony of prostitution at the motel, in addition to drug activity.

“The owner at the time would have been able to appeal to the judge to reopen the motel after a one-year period, but that never happened as the property went into foreclosure,” Weidman said.

“The property owner ignored the original order dated September 2016 to abate the property.”

That led to the hearing in December before the Sycamore Township Board of Trustees on the Drake Motel, which was built in 1961.

Weidman said the turn of events leaves the township with significant control of the property, which is near Interstate 75 and had been marketed for redevelopment.

“No matter what development seeks to operate there, whether they use the structure or not, Sycamore Township and the judge must approve of the use,” Weidman said.

The Shihasi Corp. of Symmes Township, which sold the Drake Motel to LVREIS Inc., bought it in 2008 for $1.2 million, the county auditor’s website shows.

Want to know more about what is happening in Sycamore Township? Follow me on Twitter @jeannehouck.